Communication of corporate social responsibility by Portuguese banks A legitimacy theory perspective

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether Portuguese banks use their web sites as a medium to disclose social responsibility information and identify what types of this kind of information they disclose, and compare such disclosure with similar disclosure in annual reports. Design/methodology/approach - Examines social responsibility information disclosure on the internet by Portuguese banks in 2004 and compares the internet and 2003 annual reports as disclosure media using content analysis. Findings - Banks with a higher visibility among consumers seem to exhibit greater concern to improve the corporate image through social responsibility information disclosure. Results thus suggest that legitimacy theory may be an explanation of social responsibility disclosure by Portuguese banks. Research limitations/implications - The sample is small, although it is constituted by all the relevant Portuguese banks. Originality/value - Contributes to the scarce literature on social responsibility disclosure by financial institutions. A proxy for public visibility of banks which has not been previously used is proposed in this study.